Disqus - Latest Comments for niallcook

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 15:38:23 -0000

They could, but under the Discretionary Travel Policy if the bus was full or a child living in the catchment area needed it, it wouldn’t be an issue as they would have priority (which is how it should be). In fact, once you’ve paid your £139, if a child living in the catchment area needs your seat the Council will cancel your pass and may not even give you a refund. I don’t have a problem with the need for a discretionary policy which prioritises those living in the catchment area, I just don’t see the justification of generating revenue just because a child travels on bus A rather than bus B. So far the Council haven’t been able to provide one either.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 14:48:10 -0000

What, exactly, have I said I am entitled to that others are not?

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 11:32:05 -0000

If those first class passengers had been given their seats free, then why not?

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 09:37:47 -0000

Indeed it is, but unfortunately I think it's a path we will end up going down as Councils start charging us to use more of the services that we (rightly or wrongly) feel that we are already paying for through our taxes.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 09:11:26 -0000

Maybe I am. Or maybe I think that my taxes have already providing me with the opportunity to benefit from it, not that I should have to pay twice. Unfortunately, due to the pressure of funding I think we will increasingly see our taxes used fund the existence of a facility, but we are going to have to pay again to use it.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 08:40:55 -0000

Unfortunately I think this article misses the point that I was making when I was asked to contribute, which is a shame given some of the negative comments directed against me. The issue is NOT that parents are expected to pay for a service, but that SOME parents are having to pay for a service that costs the Council no extra to provide and is offered free of charge to others, purely because they have made a choice that Central Government policy has encouraged them to make. Even the Council have been unable to justify this policy. Maybe they should apply the same 'logic' to other services and start charging for borrowing books from anywhere other than your closest library, or dumping rubbish at recycling centres other than the nearest one.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 08:22:34 -0000

Agreed. No doubt when they start blanket charging, every other parent will feel the same.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 05:27:23 -0000

No. Clearly I’m not as smart as you.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 04:44:26 -0000

I agree. Either make everyone pay for transport or make them all get their children to school themselves and put even more traffic on the roads.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 04:41:07 -0000

I fully agree, but maybe the Council also have a responsibility to make parents aware that children will only get a free school bus place if they choose their catchment school.

Re: Norfolk parents pay thousands in charges for empty seats on county council school bus services | Education | Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 04:37:36 -0000

That’s exactly what I now do, adding unnecessarily to congestion and pollution on the roads whilst there’s a half empty school bus. I don’t call £50 a month “cheap” and I doubt many other families (perhaps with more children) would either, especially when it wasn’t made clear that they would have to pay for a seat that doesn’t cost the council any extra to provide. PS. I didn’t “moan” to the EDP, they asked me to comment for their story.

Re: Introducing Shopcodes: QR Codes That Make Mobile Shopping a Breeze

Niall Cook — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 15:57:57 -0000

Thanks Alex. Might be worth letting people know that if they've already downloaded a 'pre-fix' code and starting using it, they'll need to replace it for the new 'post-fix' code.

Re: Introducing Shopcodes: QR Codes That Make Mobile Shopping a Breeze

Niall Cook — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 12:49:41 -0000

Their QR codes are not formatted properly so don't work with all QR code readers. I'm holding off using them until they fix this problem.

Re: Introducing Shopcodes: QR Codes That Make Mobile Shopping a Breeze

Niall Cook — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 10:09:23 -0000

It might, but then you still have the same problem of how the device viewing the Instagram post can scan the code

Re: Introducing Shopcodes: QR Codes That Make Mobile Shopping a Breeze

Niall Cook — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 09:58:09 -0000

Hey guys, you do realise that your Shopcodes aren't formatted properly, don't you? By omitting the 'http://' or 'https://' from the encoding, not all QR code readers will treat it as a URL. The QR code readers in the iOS Twitter and Pinterest apps, for instance, treat it as a text string so it doesn't go anywhere.

You might want to take a look at that?

Re: Introducing Shopcodes: QR Codes That Make Mobile Shopping a Breeze

Niall Cook — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 10:13:59 -0000

Need to think about the value to the customer of that. Not much point using a QR code on something that is going to be seen mainly on screen. It's much easier and quicker for people to just click a link, especially if the device they are viewing the QR code on is the same one they would have to use to scan it!

Re: Introducing Shopcodes: QR Codes That Make Mobile Shopping a Breeze

Niall Cook — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 08:26:03 -0000

With iOS 11, iPhones will have native QR code scanning direct from the camera app. There are also QR code readers built into apps like Twitter, Chrome, Pinterest and others. So really no need for a dedicated app any more. NFC, on the other hand...

Re: Norwich mobile payment firm Thyngs hooks up with PayPal - Latest Norfolk and Suffolk Business News - Eastern Daily Press

Niall Cook — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 08:29:55 -0000

You’re right. Anyone can integrate PayPal. But not everyone who integrates PayPal can also sign a payment gateway partnering agreement with them to jointly promote and market each other’s services to their respective client bases. To some people, I guess that’s quite a big deal.

Re: The End of Social Business as We Know It?

Niall Cook — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 07:21:34 -0000

Clients are getting smarter, that's all. They've finally realised that "Customer Success Manager" is simply a façade. The only success vendors are really interested in is their own.

Re: FRSB proposal to limit comms shows we need a new theory of fundraising ethics

Niall Cook — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 14:55:58 -0000

Or even charity staff 'off duty'. It all sounds nuts if you ask me.

Re: FRSB proposal to limit comms shows we need a new theory of fundraising ethics

Niall Cook — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 07:54:16 -0000

And that's before you even begin the explore what constitutes "communication". Many charity staff live in the local areas in which they operate. This is often a good thing. But does that mean the next time they're out shopping on a Saturday morning and see someone who they know has donated, they're going to have to ignore them for fear of "communicating" with them beyond the prescribed limit?

Re: Science History Auction

Niall Cook — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:55:32 -0000

Timeline showing some of the other 'firsts' in the sale here: http://bit.ly/techfirsts

Re: Debenhams, B&Q unconvinced by social media analytics

Niall Cook — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 10:40:26 -0000

Spot on. If a company was unconvinced after looking into it, then I might understand the position. But if you haven't even looked into something then I wouldn't expect you to be convinced. But then again I wouldn't expect you to be on a conference panel discussing it either!

Re: Private: Social Media For Professional Services

Niall Cook — Thu, 09 May 2013 02:23:52 -0000

Hi guys. Flattered that you value our content, but we'd appreciate it if you didn't lift our posts in their entirety in order to sell your own services.

Niall Cook, Co-founder, Sociagility

Re: Paid Media — A Change of Heart

Niall Cook — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:03:24 -0000

Richard, whilst I share the overall sentiment, how does this differ from what we used to call an 'advertorial', aside from just the channel?

PS. How are you fixed to be interviewed for my forthcoming book, The Social CEO?